Implement Voice Assistants in Hotel Rooms the Right Way

It is very important for the management to think about the basic requirements of a business before they think of implementing any software solution to their modus operandi. If the requirement analysis stage is overlooked or done with a tunnel vision of just somehow quickly solving the problem at hand, there might be a possibility that the implemented system might turn out to be a square peg in a round hole or might just make things worse than they were to begin with.

This article aims to highlight some of the very basic mistakes that you could land into making while implementing voice technology in your hotel property. We have gathered this information out of doing hundreds of demos with our leads and some pilot testing in actual hotel properties as well.

Here are some key points to consider:

Don’t deploy Internet of Things devices of any kind without great Wi-Fi infrastructure

Think about it, if you have an internet connection speed that dates back to 1995, you cannot add more burden on it with Internet of Things devices. For IoT devices to work as they are supposed to, you first need to get a strong internet infrastructure in place. So, if you are located in a city or an area where getting a strong 4G speed is an issue, you better not opt for IoT devices. It will just harm the image of the property than doing any good.“te

Build Utility that Aligns to your Guests’ Needs

Install Alexa to bring in actual utility factor for your guests and not to become a show piece blabbering around irrelevant stuff. Promote specific interactions that are related to your hotel property. Avoid promoting illogical stuff like “Alexa, Wikipedia Donald Trump” or “Alexa, what’s the capital of Canada” and likewise. Commands that don’t drive value to your guests should be avoided like the plague.

Don’t direct your guests to your website

Guests who are seeking a frictionless experience using a voice assistant want answers, not a redirection to the brand’s website. Just think if you asked something to a staff member and he tells you to go look up the answer to your question on the hotel’s website. So, if you are planning to do it, we’d suggest you to rethink your plan.

Don’t make presumptions; collect actual data

During one of our pilot testing runs, we found that the hotel manager complained about Alexa devices getting disconnected. He presumed that guests disconnected the devices because they didn’t want Alexa to listen to their conversations in the hotel rooms.

However, when we looked into the matter and also discussed with a few of the guests about why they disconnected the device, the answer we got was that they wanted to charge their mobile phones with the micro USB connector, and not because they didn’t want Alexa to listen to them.

Hence, it is essential to get to the root of the problem by the way of guest feedback and find out the answer rather than presuming the situation.

Voice is a new medium and it requires people with a specific type of skill set to build the apps. Asking your mobile app developer or the software developer to get your voice app developed is like asking a neurosurgeon to perform a heart surgery.

Developing guest-facing voice-based solutions is specialized work. If it is not done properly, your voice technology implementation might fail leading you to freak out and become apprehensive about voice technology.

Don’t Stick to any major/one Platform

Hotels should not get married to any one voice or natural language processing platform when implementing voice. There are now countless natural language processing platforms and 5x the voice-enabled hardware in the market, any of which can be leveraged, with the right hotel-grade software overlay, as the front end of a voice-based guest experience.

Rather than freaking out, giving up or becoming apprehensive about installing voice-based technology on your hotel property, it is essential to understand the loopholes where the system could potentially break.

At the same time, you have to hire people who are experienced in the voice domain and have gone through the ups and downs, so that they can protect you from such pitfalls.